Albóndigas

The meatballs go into the broth raw with the rice still uncooked inside them, so they swell and thicken it as they cook.

Pork, Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, chicken stock, pork.

Ingredients

the meatballs

• 400 g minced beef
• 300 g minced pork
• 80 g long-grain rice, UNCOOKED
• 1 egg
• 1 small onion, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons chopped mint
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

the broth

• 600 g tomatoes
• 1 onion, quartered
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 chipotles in adobo
• 1.8 litres beef or chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 carrots, in thick rounds
• 2 courgettes, in thick chunks
• 1 teaspoon salt

to serve

• lime wedges
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• corn tortillas, as on their own page

Method

1. THE MEATBALLS GO IN RAW WITH THE RICE STILL UNCOOKED INSIDE THEM, and that is both how they cook and how the broth thickens. Each ball carries a spoonful of dry rice. In the simmering broth the rice swells to roughly three times its size over twenty-five minutes, which opens the meatball up from the inside and keeps it light instead of dense -- and as it swells it sheds starch into the broth through the meat, so the liquid goes from thin to silky without a spoonful of flour. Made with cooked rice, the balls are heavy, the broth stays watery, and the dish loses both halves of the trick at once.
2. THEY ARE DROPPED IN RAW AND NOT BROWNED FIRST. Browning would seal the outside, and a sealed meatball with raw rice in it cannot take up the liquid the rice needs -- the rice stays crunchy in the middle. Raw into the broth, the surface stays permeable.
3. THEY ARE ROLLED LOOSELY AND NOT PACKED TIGHT. A light hand, barely compressed. The rice needs room to expand; a tightly packed ball splits as it does, and half of them break up into the broth.
4. THE BROTH MUST NOT BOIL ONCE THEY ARE IN. A bare simmer for twenty-five minutes. A rolling boil knocks raw meatballs apart within a few minutes and what arrives is mince soup. And the pot is not stirred -- the pan is shaken gently if anything is needed.
5. THE MINT IS NOT A GARNISH AND BELONGS IN THE MEAT. Two tablespoons, chopped, worked into the mince. It is what makes these taste like this rather than like any other meatball in tomato sauce, and sprinkled on at the end it is merely herb on top. Dried mint is noticeably duller and that is worth saying plainly.
6. The rice measured out DRY and left dry -- not rinsed, not soaked, not cooked.
7. The beef, pork, dry rice, egg, grated onion, garlic, mint, oregano, salt and pepper mixed thoroughly by hand.
8. Rolled LOOSELY into balls the size of a walnut -- about 24 -- barely compressed. Chilled 20 minutes.
9. The tomatoes, quartered onion, garlic and chipotles blended smooth.
10. The oil heated in a wide pot and the blended mixture cooked 10 MINUTES until darkened.
11. The stock and the 1 teaspoon salt added and brought to a BARE simmer.
12. The meatballs lowered in RAW, one at a time, in a single layer.
13. Simmered 15 MINUTES WITHOUT STIRRING -- the pan shaken gently if needed. The surface must never boil.
14. The carrots added and simmered 10 MINUTES.
15. The courgettes added and simmered 7 MINUTES.
16. TESTED: one meatball cut open. The rice inside must be fully swollen and soft with no crunch. If it crunches, another 8 minutes.
17. Tasted and salted -- the broth should have gone noticeably silky. Served with lime, coriander and tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes